In the past, people communicated information in a presentation by writing on a blackboard or by projecting foils or transparencies onto a wall screen. But, today computer users employ presentation graphics software to generate sophisticated and professional-looking documents that may be, e.g., projected onto a wall screen, printed as books or brochures, or published as web pages. Examples of presentation graphics software are Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe FrameMaker, and Adobe PageMaker.
Such software packages often have a grid or guide feature that displays a line or lines on a computer screen to aid the user when aligning objects in the document, where an object is any element that can be manipulated within the document. Although these grid or guide lines are displayed on the computer screen during the editing process, they are typically not included when the document is presented or printed. When the user moves or drags an object close (within a specified range) to the grid or guide line, the software takes over movement of the object and automatically snaps the object to the grid or guide line. This snapping function frees the user from manually aligning objects exactly and prevents objects from being slightly misaligned.
In another example, the AutoCAD software package available from Autodesk, Inc. of San Rafael, Calif., includes a “Drafting Settings” menu with an “Object Snap” portion. The object snap portion includes several object snap modes including, for example, endpoints, midpoints, and centers. The Object Snap menu allows the Object Snap function to be on or off. The Object Snap menu also allows Object Snap Tracking to be on or off.
Although guide and grid aligns have the above advantages, they also have the disadvantage that they visually clutter the screen and distract the user from seeing the objects that the user desires to manipulate and edit. Thus, a feature is needed that has the advantages of guide or grid lines while decreasing their disadvantages.